Reviews

After films like "Convention City" stirred a growing uproar by groups like the Legion of Decency, the Hays Production Code swiftly shut a tight lid on controversial subjects. "Men in White" is very much a pre-Code film - a grimly realistic "slice of life" circa 1934.

Sandwiched between his tough gangster roles in "Baby Face," "A Free Soul", and the macho-romantic roles he later specialized in (as in "It Happened One Night" and "Gone With the Wind"), this is one of Clark Gable's best performances. Underplayed wonderfully, Gable plays a moody doctor torn between marrying up, and his desire to further medicine and save lives.

This is one of several pairings Gable had with Myrna Loy; in "Wife vs. Secretary," "Manhattan Melodrama," and "Men in White," their romances are compulsively watchable, but obviously headed for turbulence. You could boil it down to tension between his brusque, "salt of the earth" masculinity, and Loy's caring, but slightly petulant "uptown girl" persona. If the "Gable" type and the "Loy" type in these films made a "go of it", it would not be a marriage made in heaven... That's telegraphed from the first reel. But it is fun to watch.

If you enjoy watching Loy as a witty, knowing wife in "The Thin Man" series, or frothy screwballs like "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House," you'll probably dislike her one-note, high-maintenance character here. As another reviewer said, she's nothing like Nora in this picture.

The story and characters are not especially like "ER", which focused on emergency medicine. "Men in White" is more similar to the modern "Gray's Anatomy," or "St. Elsewhere." In all three story lines, young interns (and student nurses) find themselves at a crossroads, struggling to balance their professional ambitions with personal needs. "St. Elsewhere" also introduced us to older physicians with feet of clay, struggling to save their beloved hospital from budget cuts. Sure, those two descriptions cover some of the characters on "ER" - and on plenty of other films or TV shows without a medical setting... but "Men in White" is special for what it implies about the early 1930s, a time when the medical profession was neither resented or put on a pedestal, but simply portrayed as a special calling.

This is also a time before soap operas and romantic films used "Doctor" as shorthand for "good catch". The hospital in question here runs a deficit, led in spirit by the research-oriented Dr. Hochberg (played, fittingly, by Jean Hersholt, one of Hollywood's most famous philanthropists). Hochberg's work is his life; he is an idealist who can barely imagine that a young doctor would not want to follow the same path. Another older doctor talks longingly of the dramatic changes that have occurred in his career, such as the introduction of hygiene methods - "sterilized" masks, coats and gloves were still pretty new. And there's a short scene where a hospital administrator blithely suggests that laboratory technicians should be fired to make more money. (Today, of course, lab costs are a money maker for some hospitals.) All in all, worlds away from "white lab coat" syndrome, bottom-line focused HMOs, and other modern problems of today's hospitals.

SPOILER

What makes this a pre-Code film, and likely prevented it from gaining more modern viewers or distribution, is a delicately played trio of scenes. One of the characters has had a back-alley abortion, and is rushed into surgery. The word "abortion" is never said, but 1930s viewers were on the level.

Gentle reader: some negative comments posted were written before the finished product came out. In 2003, an industry wonk leaked a snarky summary of this pilot's script, an analysis suggesting it was sex-absorbed and lacking in the warm family feelings of the original series.

Actually, it's SF drama made for adults – not flashing flesh for the sake of doing so, but an action-packed *and* serious story, a la Farscape and Babylon 5.

Now, Glen Larson's Mormon theology added a mystic flavor to the original TV episodes, and there was a wonderful bond between Adama and Apollo ... but there's more maturity in this miniseries. You get a real sense of gravity -- the hopefulness and desperation of colonists after their homes are destroyed, the cold onslaught of nuclear missiles and mushroom clouds rising above the planets.

Grafting new special effects onto the "same old thing" – no matter how beloved, it still has warts – would have made the characters seem cheesy and irrelevant. Post-911, underplaying the chaos would have been callous.

As a kid, I adored Dirk Benedict, a truly gorgeous and charming man. But what actor could fill his shoes in this retooled vision, one that is much more serious, (no disco floozies with multiple pairs of eyes for Dirk to hit on)? No one. Trying to shoehorn a new face into the old kind of role rarely works. In the 1970s TV producers seemed to think you could just trade a blonde for a blonde - "Dukes of Hazzard," "CHiPs", "Charlie's Angels", "Three's Company", and many others.

So why not go in a different direction altogether, avoid the inevitable comparisons, look at a new dynamic between Starbuck and Apollo, and either cast against type (ie a woman) or go in a different direction – just as STTNG developed characters that were not carbon copies of the original Trek. Moreover, Katee Sackhoff has interesting charm, making Starbuck both a confident jock and vulnerable outsider. Watching this Starbuck - as well as the changed Apollo - doesn't make me enjoy the buddy relationship in the original series any less, or take away from Richard Hatch's or Dirk Benedict's interpretations. The Apollo and Starbuck of this miniseries are easier to relate to as real people, more confused and more flawed.

Nor has the show been "demasculinized" because of the inclusion of women – criticism that the show is anti-male seems awfully strange, since Adama, Apollo, Tigh, and the new characters Helo, Tyrol and Billy are all strong characters, but different in personality, demeanor etc.

True, this is the kind of SF that sets its sights a little higher than action figures. Your enjoyment of this series will be in proportion to how much you enjoy realism, period. You might hate science fiction but still like this - or love science fiction, but hate this series because it's too realistic. In the wake of tragedies like September 11th, the world *did* see a lot of heroism, but it also saw a lot of chaos. That kind of upheaval is here in the miniseries and was lacking in the original, in which things got pretty "normal" a little too quickly.

Other fans were angry that "Tigh drinks", "Starbuck punches a superior officer" etc. Actually, the underlying theme of fraternization (you know, men and women in the service getting it on, enlisted and officers mixing it up) does go on everyday, there *are* functioning alcoholics in the modern military (and in every other line of work), and service people do occasionally get into stupid fights (again, like the rest of us), sometimes but not always taking place at a bar or around cards. (As the wife of a former petty officer, I recognize this world even if other viewers don't. Of course, writer Ron Moore is only the son of a Marine, so what the hell does he know? -sarcasm) While attacking a fellow officer leads to court-martial in our universe, the point is, we're watching speculative fiction, not reality TV – a universe in which Cylons believe that God is controlling their destiny and FTL travel is a reality.

The acting is strong and solid, beginning with Edward James Olmos and Mary McDowell -- two of the best character actors in Hollywood. The others, especially Sackhoff, are good, but I was particularly impressed by Tricia Helfer. As a former model, being promoted heavily in a nude magazine spread and shown as a lip-licking hotty in all the commercials... well, it smacked of "Let's put a sexy blonde in here to get viewers to show up". Imagine my surprise when I watched this and found Helfer's performance affecting and even ... sympathetic.

In one scene she murders a baby - not out of cruelty, but so that he won't suffer through the nuclear devastation of Caprica. As she walks away there is palpable grief on her face. Likewise – as the nuclear strikes begin, why does she choose to tell Baltar what's going to happen, and protect his life? In her first scene, in a marketplace, she turns and touches a group of flowers. She may be inhuman, but she appears to have human feelings. And Helfer can actually act.

It makes you wonder - what did the humans do to make their robotic "children" despise them so? A direct parallel is drawn between this "parent-child" relationship and a literal father-son relationship between Adama and Apollo... perhaps if Adama and Apollo can mend their love for each other, there is even hope for Number 6, who shows signs of a stirring conscience.

All in all, if you enjoy drama, strong acting, and serious speculative fiction like Babylon 5 or Farscape, don't miss this.

Will you enjoy this movie? It depends on what you're seeking. It's fascinating to read the mixed reviews here and in the press: clearly many viewers and even critics expected a crash-em-bash-em flick even though Ang Lee was at the helm.

The target audience may be very young male comic book/SF fans, but ironically... this film will be better appreciated by the smaller, more mature audience that's devoted to more complex, passionate comics like "Daredevil", "Watchmen," even "Sandman" or "Ghost World", and has some experience with

a) classical myth and literature, and b) the complicated twists and turns of post- high school/college life. (Which is not meant as a dig at young fans... says the former Marvel Zombie, confidentially.)

The cast isn't made up of ascending "Young Hollywood" types in their early twenties and thirties, but more seasoned performers: Nick Nolte, Sam Elliot and Jennifer Connelly. Eric Bana is probably the least well known of the cast, but he floored Australian audiences with his transformation into infamous criminal "Chopper" and was also singled out from the ensemble of "Black Hawk Down"'.

It makes a huge difference in the tone of the piece: our hero and heroine aren't plucky young folks starting out their lives under the benevolent guidance of Professor X or Aunt May -- but sadder, more mature adults who know they've made mistakes.

Bana's great at conveying the underlying tension of a seemingly-mild mannered scientist. Likewise Connelly comes off as much more than a one-note love interest/babe, with her own dark shadows -- very believably, she can't help but needle Bruce about his repressed feelings, which only says more about her own relationship with her father. Their love for one another is palpable, even though Bana is the only one person in the flick to [MAY BE A SPOILER] drop trout, in a moonlit scene that will make women viewers very pleased, even if it follows an attack by a mutant poodle. It's much less kissy-kissy than previous Marvel flicks.

Sam Elliot is solid and imposing as always ... as for Nick Nolte, as Bruce's father... the man is so wiggy, it's impossible not to think of his recent run-in with liquid XTC. Yes, he really does look like his Malibu mugshot. There's been lots of carping about the CGI -- which is understandable, if you're seeing Hulk primarily for the action. It's not that bad, but it's not incredible -- then again, neither was the CGI in Spiderman.

However, there's great realism and beauty in other ways, including strangely emotional closeups of the desert wildlife (seemingly the one place Banner/Hulk can find solace, other than with Betty), the repeated visual theme of reptiles (even some of Banner's flashback dreams have a strange, slick kaleidoscope quality to them, like salamander skin), and the exciting manipulation of the visuals to reflect their comic book origin. Speaking as a escapee semi-lackey from the ivory tower... Banner's clothes, lab, and habits as an academic are so dead-on they're funny -- including the bike helmet.

If you are looking for fun action and don't want to think too much, avoid this movie. If you like something with a little more kick, give it a try. It's an emotionally and thematically ambitious flick, one that will continue to be interesting in a few years' hindsight, certainly moreso than "X-Men I" or "Daredevil".